Fantasy Football Daily - Arthur Smith, Dan Campbell, and Key Games | Take Talk Podcast

Episode Date: September 20, 2023

In Take Talk 72, Steve O'Rourke (@callmesteveo7) and Brett Whitefield (@BGWhitefield) discuss how Arthur Smith is using Bijan Robinson and Dan Campbell's clock management skills. They also do a full-scale review of the Chargers/Titans Week 2 tilt, and preview Monday night's game between the Eagles and Buccaneers. SIGN UP FOR FANTASY POINTS WITH CODE GURRIFIC25 AT CHECKOUT FOR 25% OFF: https://www.fantasypoints.com/plans#/ READ DR. EDWIN PORRAS' INJURY [PRO]NE GUIDE WITH CODE INJURYPRONE25: https://injuryproneguide.myshopify.com/ Want to join a high-stakes dynasty league -- or any other high-stakes league? All new FFPC users get $25 off their first FFPC league of $35 or more, including dynasty orphans, using our affiliate link: ⁠https://myffpc.com/cms/public?affid=fantasypoints⁠ ⁠FANTASY POINTS PROJECTIONS ARE LIVE⁠ FOR ALL STANDARD AND PREMIUM SUBSCRIBERS! Interested in playing Best Ball in 2023? There's no better place than Underdog Fantasy. ⁠Use our code FANTASYPTS⁠ to sign up for a new account at Underdog, and not only will you get a 100% deposit match up to $100... but you'll get a Fantasy Points Standard subscription for only $5! ⁠https://www.fantasypoints.com/underdog --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time to the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoint.com. Top level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. And we are back with another episode of the Take Talk podcast. I am your host, Brett Whitefield. This is my co-host, Stephen O'Rourke. Stephen, welcome to the show. How are you, sir?

I'm doing great. Another week down. I got a lot of sleep last night. I'm feeling good. Nice. I am under the weather. This happens. This happens at the beginning of ever season.

Steve. I don't get any sleep. And I have three kids in school and they come home and give me all sorts of weird parasitical viruses, the other kids carry around. And it's gross. And since my immune system is in the tanker, I usually get sick. So I even bailed on John Hansen's show this morning, I usually do Wednesday mornings because I just felt like I was dead. So yeah.

And along with feeling like I'm dead, let's get into the NFL news of the week, Steve. Everyone is dead. Yeah. It's, I mean, this was absolute carnage this week. The grim reaper came and said, you are done having fun. Yeah. It is like next man up is never more prevalent than it is going into this week. Every freaking team in the NFL right now is going.

next man up we got this right so i know i know a lot of local fan bases are freaking out about their team but just go look at every other team yeah it'll feel a lot better real quick it's not good really anywhere like i mean and you could feel it watching the games this week i mean just why you like it felt like there's so much time lost to just guys being down every other series every series almost yeah i actually messaged dr edwin asking him like is this year different than others it just seems like every game is taken forever because we're spending so much time with injured players. And his answer was no. Like it kind of ebbs and flows.

I think just this week was really bad. Like this week was, dude. Even going into Monday night football before the Nick Chubb thing happened, I had this feeling of like, oh my God, this week was horrible for injuries. And then you saw that happen on live TV and you're just like, oh, my God. Yeah, that was brutal. And just like, Nick Chubb is the best. of us. He's just like genuinely feels and like it has always felt like a very under the radar,

just good guy. And you know, to see that happen, it's, it was brutal to watch. Yeah. And unfortunately, as, you know, Adam Schaefter so callously pointed out, that is the knee he heard at Georgia. Yeah. That was that. What was that update? Sheff did the engagement farm off of a dude's injury. Like, holy friend. I saw that the morning after, and I was like, why? What's the point of this? Why even bring that up? Especially for him.

Like, if you play, like, the doctor role on Twitter, you know, like, we got our guy. We got, I think, two actually that work at fantasy points. You know, if that's your angle, like, hey, because of this injury, this one might be harder to come back from. Here's some analysis, and you're actually given an analysis. That's whatever. That makes sense. But to just be like, oh, by the way.

in 2015 Nick Chubb tore this, this, this, and this. And it's the same knee. He's basically effed. Well, then to word it as if, like, it's confirmation of what the injury was. Like, if you stopped reading halfway through, you're like, okay, that's what he just injured. And because that, I mean, that caught me where I was like, oh, that's what, that's what happened. And then I read it through again, I'm like, oh, he's just saying what the injury was from the last time he heard. It has no, literally exactly ago, by the way.

It has no bearing on anything about this. injury at all. That's exactly what happened to me. I read I read the first half of that tweet and was like, oh my, how do they already know that? That's crazy. That must be over bad. And then, and then I figured out that that was just an engagement farming tweet. So here we are. He does that every once in a while. Every once in a while he pulls that move. And he knows what he's doing because it works every time. It gets people every single time. Yep. You know what? Since this is take talk and we're talking about bad takes. I got another one for you. That's not super football related, but it is Steve and Brett related because it has to do with something we both enjoy very much.

Dan Orlovsky this morning tweeted about procedural coffee making. And procedurally, do you go creamer in the cup first or creamer after you pour the coffee? So this is a multi-layered question, Steve. So I don't use any creamer. Okay. Well, think that's the That was the second question is that's no creamer for me. I don't do it. Yeah. If I do any milk whatsoever, it's in the form of a cortado. So it's a double shot of espresso with literally an ounce of milk in it.

Yeah. Steamed milk at that. But my boys. Sorry, go ahead. As I say, I do make my wife's coffee and she does take creamer. Like I usually make my wife's coffee in the morning. And I do a little bit. I do creamer first, a little bit of.

coffee and add a little bit of coffee froth it and then add the rest of the coffee. Ooh. Okay. That's usually my procedural making of coffee if it has creamer in it. Nice. So I, if I were to use creamer like I did when I was like 12 because I'm a man now, I don't use cream. But I would do creamer first, then a little bit of coffee, you know, then coffee.

And then that way, for one, it mixes itself. It stirs itself. Right. You can kind of see where you're at at the end. Like, ooh, maybe I overpoured the coffee, dump a little out, pour some more coffee in to darken it up. Or, oh, wow, I really skimped out on the creamer. I can add just a touch more.

Granted, I don't use any creamer, but that's what I would do. And then the second question, Steve, he's using oat milk as a creamer. I mean, I don't know. It's fine. I mean, I don't mind oat milk. The texture of it's vile, though. You can't use it in caught. I'm sorry.

Serial, whatever. Because cereal, the texture of the cereal hides the texture of the oat milk. Right. I can't even imagine putting oat milk in my coffee. That's just vile. Oat milk is like a last case scenario. If like we've completely run out of creamer and we have no milk. But we happen to have oat milk.

It's like emergency. Emergency use only is its operational value. I can live with that. I can live with that. So, all right. Let's hop into today is things Brett likes. I don't know how many more of these will do because eventually you're going to know our entire lives

and I don't know if we want to know that much about us. But since I'm sick, I prepared nothing. But I can come up with it pretty quick here. Things Brett likes. I like PCGA. Jiu-Jitsu Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is where I train. If you live in the Metro Detroit area, check out PCGA and you're interested in grappling.

Whether you're like a former athlete looking for that next competitive cycle in your life, great stop for you. Whether you're like a hobbyist just looking for a nice community of people are going to like lift you up and help you get better, stronger, faster, healthier, great community. If you're just looking for a simple weight loss solution, PCGA is for you. We have a phenomenal community. We have a really robust class schedule three days a week. I'm sorry, three times a day, pretty much every day of the week.

So there's a 6 a.m. class, a noon class and a night class. There's a really, really good kids program if you want to get your kids involved. I think it's awesome from we have, you know, nine-year-old kids training to 70-year-old men and women training. It's pretty awesome. It's really, really cool environment. We're located in the Metro Detroit area. Check out the PCGA.com for more. So the PCGA is one thing that I.

like. Another thing I like is, oh man, this is why you got to prepare, Steve. This is why. It's moments like this. Yeah. Let's see. Have I done steak yet? I don't know if you've done grilling, but I think I did Blackstone one day. Yeah, you did do that for sure. I'll do steak today. I like steak. I cook steak a few times a week. Last night, though, Steve, I did some rib-eyes, even though I was sick. My family still needed to eat, and my wife wasn't getting home until 6 o'clock. So that left me to do the cooking, and I made some just phenomenal rib-eyes. They're pretty good.

I'm surprised I didn't send you in Chris the picture because that's normally what I do. I know. I know you always throw it in there. And again, I can't reiterate enough that it's cruel in an unusual punishment. Yes. Cruel and unusual punishment. And then lastly, I like Cortados specifically. we've talked about me liking coffee on this podcast,

but I really like Cortado's. It's my favorite espresso drink. It's not too milky. A lot of times you drink like a latte, you feel like your head's a balloon for the rest of the day because there's so much dairy in it. Yeah. Cortado is basically equal parts espresso,

equal parts milk. It's really good. It's delicious. There you go. That's it. Those are the things I like. All right. Steve, we're going to do some.

What did you think about this? I'm going to start with the Atlanta Falcons. What do you think about Bijon Robinson? This is a multi-layered discussion, by the way. What do you think about Bajon Robinson? Full disclosure, I haven't watched the Green Bay Atlanta game. I have seen clips of Bijon on Twitter from that game, and I watched last week's game.

And I think what I think about him is that he's exactly what I thought he was going to be. Yeah. I mean, he's always the best running back in the NFL. Yeah, he, He's already living up to his billing. I mean, the dude moves so well in space. He sees the game differently. He sees just openings in the defense differently than most any player in the NFL,

especially at the running back position. I just think he's so versatile. And, you know, if the Atlanta Falcons wanted to give him 35 touches a game, I don't think anybody would be upset about that because, I mean, especially when you have a quarterback like Desmond Ritter, who, you know, everybody has their opinions of Desmond Ritter. I think he's fine. I don't think he's going,

he's not going to, you know, backpack a team to the playoffs by any means, but, you know, he operates well within the offense. And I think that having a weapon like Bejan just makes his job so much easier.

Like, just to have him as a checkdown, to have him just to hand the ball off to get designed plays to. He's just so good in space that he can make plays on, on nothing. And, you know,

it's not really, again, it's not something you have, we've seen in a, while, you know, I think like he's a little bit reminiscent of like La Danian Tomlinson, where it feels like he's a plus value in every aspect of the game, which not many running backs are. And he, I mean, yeah, he's just so good. He's so much fun to watch.

So good. All right. Second part of this question is, what do you think about Arthur Smith in the way he uses Bejohn? And check this out. I'm going to go through a scenario. You tell me if this is just bull or not bull. Atlanta is driving the football. They're on a long drive right now.

They get down to the Green Bay 11, running a first and 10 play from the Green Bay 11. Bejohn Robinson is not on the field. That play goes for nine yards. So they're at second and one from the Green Bay two. Bejohn Robinson is not on the field. They get a pass interference on that play to make it first in goal from the one-yard line. Bejohn Robinson is not on the field. second and goal from the one yard line.

Bejan Robinson finally comes in. He gets a carry for no gain. Third and one from the Green Bay one. And Bjean Robinson comes off the field again. He's not on the field on third and one from the one. Incomplete pass to Johnny Smith. Fourth and one from the one, they come out to run a play. And guess what?

Bejohn Robinson is not on the field. From the one yard line, Steve. they drew a false start and ended up kicking a field goal and I got to feel like bro Arthur where's your deal right? Yeah I and like listen I'm not

chances of score. Yeah I think I mean I think it's bowl because look you don't have to give him the ball every single time inside the red zone. It's not a feasible strategy. It doesn't always work well you know whatever but just have them on the field The threat of him in the red zone within the five-yard line, within the one-yard line,

is enough to make defenses change their strategy. Not having them on the field takes away your most dynamic weapon off the field. You're pulling away your most dynamic weapon, and at least it gives offenses a little bit more to key in on. Or defense is more to key in on. I just think that, like, again, I mean, just for an example, we saw it with Detroit when they converted that fourth down inside the red zone. they had Jemir Gibbs, lined up at running back.

They motioned him out. And, you know, it pulled the defender out with him. And then it allowed, you know, defense flowed with it and allowed them to run that counteraction back with Amman Rod to convert the fourth down. It's little things like that that you'd like to see Arthur Smith do with Bijan is use, you know, motion him. Use him in a way that, like, distracts the defense and makes them focus on him and like get scared that he's going to get the ball in a different way. Yeah. I, it just, it kind of blew my mind. I was, I was blowing up the, the fantasy points in total discord.

I was just so upset with, with Arthur and the play calling there. I don't know why, and this isn't just the Falcons. A lot of teams are really scared to go empty when they're on the goal line. Yeah. Obviously for, for, probably because space is already tight. So having like, you know, in theory, five routes into the end zone is not ideal because there's really not space for that. Right. And then furthermore.

I think the idea of going empty, you're pretty much guaranteeing some type of blitz and you don't want to lose yardage when you're on the goal line. But I would love to see a team like Atlanta who's got a pretty mobile quarterback. He's not Justin Fields or anything, but he's mobile. He's got some wheels. Yeah. Come out in like 12 personnel. You can attach the tight ends to the line of scrimmage still.

Motion bejean out into the slot and go empty. You still have a good path protection plan because you can still keep seven in the block. and then just watch what happens to that defense. If they spread to match the new empty set, then you run QBD draw. If they don't, then you have options. You got Pitts, Drake London, and B. John Robinson. Like, you got to get way more creative on the goal than this team is.

It's kind of brutal. Now, I get, you're pretty hamstrung from the inside, or from the 20 to the 20 with Ritter because he's not that great of the passer. Yeah. So you got to do whatever you came to get down there. a lot of heavy run scheme, whatever. But once you're on the goal line, with the weapons you have, you've got to be able to make it work with this with this crew.

This crew is insane. They have talent all over the place. So does Arthur Smith have too much talent to work with? Is it overwhelming him? Like for specifically goal line and red zone looks, he might. I mean, there should be no reason not to be elite on the goal line with Bijon pits in London. Yeah. Yeah, it should be.

they should have one of the best red zone conversion percentage percentages right they really should next what did you think of that what did you think of Dan Campbell's final drive clock usage

specifically you know is there anything like Detroit fans are losing their mind this week about it I'll give you my take in a second but I want to hear your take what a what did you think of Dan Campbell's end-of-game clock usage? I mean, I thought it was a little bit lackadaisical. I mean, I don't fully, I'd see it like they generally seem like they were playing for a

field goal. They were playing for a tie, which, you know, we've decried numerous times on this podcast for other coaches doing the same thing. And I'm not going to let Dan Campbell off the hook because you have an offense that's been moving outside of, you know, a couple drives. They've been moving the ball well the entire game. You've been moving, you've been, I mean, Jared Gough was ripping balls up the seams and had openings up the seams with Reynolds and Leporta, things like that over the middle. And you had, they had three

timeouts going into it. I just like, I don't understand why there wasn't more of a push to conserve, conserve time and give yourself more opportunities. Like I understand, you know, they got down somewhat close to the end zone and, you know, obviously the field gets more congested and things like that. But it just, I just don't understand why there wasn't more of a push to go, go to the end zone, especially given that your defense had been struggling that day. And, you know, over time can come down to a coin flip. And I just, I wish you would have seen them be more aggressive,

especially considering the entire rest of the game, they had been very aggressive. I mean, incredibly aggressive. I mean, did they even punt them? Did they punt the ball on? Sunday? One time. Once. And then they went for it on, you know, their other fourth downs. It just. Well, they only had two other fourth downs, I think. But yeah. But still, I mean, you know, they're going for it. It's just like, why not push that aggressiveness and get them on their heels? I think if you ran more of a hurry up, you saw a couple times where it took them, you know,

they were taking a while to get up the line. They weren't really operating with a sense of urgency. It was a little bit more of, you know, like we're fine, you know, it's kind of not really. as much of your two-minute offense as you could do and, you know, really push it. And I just, I don't understand it. I don't totally understand it from a standpoint of they could have gotten probably three or four more plays in there with the time that they took in between some of those plays. So my take, I don't think the time was ever an issue. I don't think it got to the point. What the issue was is that they didn't convert the third down.

They convert the third down. They call time out immediately. still have probably 21 seconds in the first seven downs from like the 15-ish. Yeah. So we can go through the plays. They started that drive on the 50, by the way. Yep. Because Caleb Raymond had a good return on the punt.

And Gino's a horrible sack. Yeah, Gino took a horrible sack. Dixon had the punt from the three-yard line. Which he bombed it, by the way. And then Raymond still ripped off a good return, got all the way out to the 50. So with a minute 44 and the Seahawks had three timeouts, I know what's going through Dan's mind. It's like we got to eat a lot of this clock.

We cannot give Gino the ball back with time. Yeah. So it was a little conservative of an approach, but they still moved the ball well. So first play, Jared Goff passed to Josh Reynolds for 12 yards. They let about 40 seconds come off the clock. Next play. Caleb Raymond on the end around for, what, 11 yards down to the Seattle 27.

So a minute left, and they're already on the 27. Yeah. But now you're definitely thinking, while we're moving it, we got to run this clock. So they get down to the 32 second mark, golf hits Gibbs for four yards on first and 10. So they're on the Seattle, 23, and they take a time out with 26 seconds left. I don't think time was an issue here. The play that really screwed them was the next one. 26 seconds, Jared Goff passed incomplete to Amon Rae St. Brown.

Amon Ra was open, wide open. Golf missed him. It was one of the few misses of the day. He got pressure early in his face. He got hit as he was throwing it. And the ball was short. If Amon Ra catches that, he gets down to probably about the 10, 8-yard line,

and they have 22-ish seconds left. I don't think time was ever an issue. And I think they still have two timeouts. Right. You're on the 8-yard line. It doesn't take 22 seconds to run four plays, especially when you have two-time outs. So I didn't think.

think that was the issue that where they got a little wonky was the next play on the third and six again golf had pressure had to check it down to gibbs gibbs didn't pick up the first so that was that was the issue if they convert the first down there i think dan's very aggressive in the situation but knowing he didn't want to give gino the ball back i think that was that was what was first and foremost in his mind was it perfect no i just don't think people are like losing their mind over it and i don't think it was remotely that bad like i like i said I don't think time was ever the issue. The issue was that they had to make it a fourth and three decision.

Yeah. Which in that, I mean, the missing Amonrae St. Brown was big. And it came down to defense is able to key in on Amin Ra. And then they didn't have a ton of guys that can consistently win on routes. And that's going to be a, I think that's going to be a theme, at least potentially, until Jameson Williams comes back, but you've kind of seen it so far this season where this offense is a very methodical offense

because they have to be. They, you know, Amundraud St. Brown is not a game breaker. I mean, he's, you know, incredibly consistent, but he's not like breakaway speed. He wins his routes. But, you know, when you have just one guy that can do that and you're relying on, you know,

Josh Reynolds, Gibbs underneath, LePorte, a lot of underneath stuff, It just, you know, that's what it comes down to is that when you can't have a guy win consistently or you have just one guy and the defense can key in on them, it limits your options, especially in those, you know, high pressure situations. Yeah, obviously we've scrutinized their weapons pretty heavily, but it's still amazing that through two games so far, they've still got 10 explosive plays in the past game.

Yeah. That's nuts. Like they're, like Josh Reynolds is playing really, really well. I would like for them to have a better speed option to go with Amman Ra and Josh. And I think Caliph can be the answer, by the way. And you saw the transition from Marv to him happened this week. He played a lot more than Marvin did. I think that was, I don't even think Mark, did Marvin get a target in this game?

Yeah, I think he got one. I won. I remember one target to him. And he was heavily targeted in the first game. So. Yeah. But I do think they know that their personnel is not the best. they do definitely take a methodical approach,

but they're still hitting explosives like crazy. So, I mean, they're, I think they're tied to the league lead in explosive plays in the past game. I mean, so far, golf and Ben Johnson are,

you know, end of last year and then going into this year, they've been one of the last, the most fun quarterback, offensive coordinator tantums to watch. Because you can see that golf is more confident this year, and Ben Johnson is just a really good play caller. I mean,

that's all it comes down to is he's very good situationally, and he's very good at getting guys open for golf. Yep. All right. Let's pivot to our games of the week. Actually, real quick, I want to give a shout out to Nico Collins this week, Steve. He was my week two game ball recipient. Dude was ball in.

Second week in a row, really. His stat line week one wasn't great, but the film was awesome. He is cooking out there. He looks much improved from a route running standpoint. technique has gotten really, really good. Releases off press look really good. He's going to dominate single high coverage all year, I think. So unless you're going to play too high against him,

I don't really know how to stop what he's doing. Him and Stroud have a really special connection so far. So shout out. I'm ripping it this year too. Yeah, he, I mean, he looks, it's weird. His tape is really polarizing for me. I watched every dropback yesterday, actually, when I was doing Nico. And he looks entirely different when he's not thrown it to Nico.

Like he's processing information quickly, throwing with anticipation. And then when he's targeting those other receivers, he's holding the ball really long. Ball's not coming out necessarily in time. They're scheming it up pretty good too. Like Tank is getting, and Robert Woods getting a lot of those design touches, which is really helping. But Stroud has impressed me a little bit. He's playing a lot better than I thought it would as a rookie. So, yeah, with a just horrendous offensive line situation.

Yeah, another team. Yeah, a lot of injuries on that front, but he's making do with it. All right, games of the week. So we're going to do a little review of the best game from week two, and we pegged that as the Tennessee Chargers game. Mostly because this game was, like, comical. I remember talking to Chris before the game, Steve, and he said, you know, he was, we're talking about DFS stuff. And he was like, he basically touted the Chargers.

Like, I think I'm playing Herbert and Keenan Allen. And then he was like, started thinking about it. He's like, you know what, though? If there's ever a game where Mike Vrable might just have the best game plan, I just feel like it could be this one for whatever reason. And then, of course, not only does Vrable Vrable and do the game plan thing, but the Chargers Charger, and they screw themselves because that's what they do. every year we hype the Chargers so much and we forget that they're the Chargers. They just find ways to not do it. I did my best to not get on the train as hard this year.

And it's proven to be okay. I mean, listen, the offense is playing well. Their defenses look pretty rough so far. I mean, Tanahill played real, I mean, coming off the game that he had last week where it looks like, oh, my gosh, why is this man? starting at quarterback, should we consider switching to Malik Willis? Should we consider, like, should there be a switch made? And then this week, I just, it's, for how much talent the charges have on defense,

I just don't get why they're this bad. I don't understand. I mean, I don't just understand how Brandon Saley can't figure this out. I don't understand how their defense is consistently just getting gashed in the passing game. It just doesn't make, I can't make sense of it. So let's play this game then. why does Brandon Staley have a job? Why?

Because you can't admit giving up on it. I just don't think they want to admit that they have to give up on him. They brought him in because he was running this really cool scheme in L.A. Super creative, super aggressive, analytically driven guy. And then he comes to the Chargers. I guess that's also L.A. because of the Chargers

with arguably more talent they were loaded they brought in J.C. Jackson they already had Derwin James and Michael Davis and Joey Bosa they brought in Kaleel Mack like this team was loaded this year Adderly they had like a lot of really good players yeah and it just does not

work no like they gave up like 250 yards to Ryan Tannahill in that group of pass catchers that's like the equivalent of giving up 466 to Tua in my opinion Yeah. So the frustrating thing though, Steve, is like, if you're a Chargers fan, it's like they brought in Kell and Moore to fix the offense.

And that's working. It seems like they brought in, I'm sorry, the scheme that Staley was running in with the Rams and is still running in the Chargers is still a really popular scheme throughout the NFL. And it's still working at a high level everywhere else. Yep. The Jets are basically running the same scheme. But it's not working there. and he's the guy, he's supposed to be the dude that runs that. At this point, I don't know what the justification for keeping him is.

I mean, I know it's week two. You're not firing a coach week two. But holy cow, he's got to be on the hot seat. I'm sorry to say. He has to be. It has to be. I mean, again, with a team with this much talent, for them to be, for them to have started the season 0 and 2, regardless of who they

played, and especially given the situations that they were in where you would argue that they had, I mean, they had chances to win both games. And it just, you know, I mean, Chris coined the, coined the nickname Fakesharp, Brandon Staley. And, you know, it's just, it's proven to be true. He's, I don't, I just, again, I just can't figure out why and how they're letting teams rip them. I mean, Tanna Hill, week one, I think had like a almost 15% turnover worthy throw rate, which

you know i mean the saints were putting him in we're creating plays getting pressure and you know uh forcing a lot of bad throws he didn't have a single turnover worthy throw against the chargers and he had like an 83% completion percentage and i mean he it was it was insane he absolutely picked him apart and again how like j c jackson and michael davis durwin james should not be a secondary like that should not be getting picked apart the way that they are Yeah. By the way, Ryan Tannahill in this game had two of the most ridiculous throws. You're going to see the one he had to Traylon Burks. By the way, Traylon Burks.

Oh, my God. I'll give him this. He runs really well in a straight line for a while, and then the ghost will get him. The ghost always gets Traylon Burks. There's never a player where the ghost doesn't get him. But this play specifically, he wins his nine route. Taney Hill hits him with probably the best deep ball

we've seen in the season, a 60 yard it actually traveled like 61 yards in the air. Perfect throw. Hits Berks in stride and Burks gets to like the 10 yard line and falls down. Yeah. The ghost got him.

So shut out, the most athletic, unathletic person of all time. He has zero body control. It is actually amazing how uncoordinated he is. It reminds me of a little bit of Hawkinson

after the catch. Kind of like a baby deer, baby deer look. They just get the ball in their hands and then it's just like flailing almost. Like there's no coordination. There's no, it's just like legs and arms are all over the map

and then they fall down. Yep. Well, Hawk stop trying to do things after the guts. He just falls down now instinctively. And he's getting better. He picks and chooses when you can tell that he has his feet underneath him.

that's when he'll go after a defender. But when he doesn't have his feet underneath him, you're right. He doesn't take those risks anymore. He just kind of, he's down. He's down moving on to the next play. You know who he is, dude. He's Adam Thielen, bro. What is the last time you saw Adam Thielen pick up a single yard of yak on a play?

Yeah. Tyler Lockett's the same way. Yeah. Or Tyler Lockett just, which Tyler Lockett's more of a size thing, I think. I think he's good at minimizing and mitigating, getting clean, contact on himself. Yeah. But with a guy with Thielen and Traylon Burks and Hawkinson's size, there's no reason

they should be going down. Yeah, Lockett is at least good at Yack. He just knows, like, if he catches a ball on like a sail or an out route or over the middle and he doesn't know where the defensive back is, he isn't like located him in his head. Yeah. He's just going to go down or go out of bounds. He just knows. It's strategic.

Now they do scheme him up some, some YAC stuff, which he's really good at, but like he's not taking hits he'll need to take. That's smart. I feel like Thielen and Hawkinson, it's just like. They just, they don't even want to try. Yeah. They're just done. Thielen's hilarious, bro.

I feel like there's so many play. Like, do you ever watch J.T. O'Sullivan? Yeah. I occasionally watch JT. but I wonder if there's beef there because JT's last season in Minnesota. Thielen was a rookie. But he picks on Thieland so hard. But it's true.

Like, I never really noticed it until he put it out. But like, Thieland Wolf. catch a pass on the boundary and make you think he's going out of bounds but he actually falls on like he like falls in bounds yeah so he could definitely turn it up sometimes he just doesn't which is really funny but anyways back to this game yeah back to the task at the end Traylon burke's also in the the Hawkinson adam theland variety except that he's just athletically unathletic not a lot of functional athleticism going on there. So, but yeah, this Tennessee offense managed to pick apart the Chargers

defense in the past game, which was wild. And then they ran the ball decently, I'll say effectively. I know Henry, you know, was basically just smashed you in the face all game. I think he had like three yards of carry. But Taj Spears was a really nice change of pace option. Yeah. But ultimately, Chargers defense collapsed when it mattered most and Tennessee scored the go-ahead touchdown and then the Chargers couldn't get it done. I think they had time left, right, Steve? Didn't they get an actual drive going at the end?

Yes, they had a chance to make something happen and they didn't. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So this is the crazy thing. They're only down three, Steve. They get the ball with, is that 10 minutes left? Oh, my God. Oh, no, it was high.

Okay. Yeah. It was tied. They get the ball with 10 minutes left. Herbert, incomplete pass, deep. Three deep shots in a row. And then they have to punt. And then Tennessee didn't give the ball back.

And you can tell, like, this week compared to last week, what really, I think, messed up with the Chargers flow as an offense is their run game did not do anything this week. Compared to last week. Last week, they, I mean, they had over 200 yards rushing. Yeah. They were gashing the Miami Dolphins at Will, and they were able to kind of pick their spots with Herbert up until the end of the game where, you know, he needed to make some throws. And they got pressure or Miami got pressure on him. But they, you know, they were able to, you know, kind of dictate the pace of the game a little bit with their run game.

This week, they weren't able to do that hardly at all. They, you know, finished with 61 yards, 2.9 yards per carry. they were stuffed on two-thirds of their rush attempts. I mean, just, yeah, overall, having 14 of your 21 rushing attempts get stuffed, that, I mean, Herbert ended up, you know, playing well. And he, I saw him rip the ball a little bit more this week. And he looked a little bit more confident throwing the ball down the field compared to the week before where he was kind of taking his chances a little bit more.

But that, you know, the charges offense, it has. has been and it apparently continue will continue will continue to be kind of dictated by how the rush offense goes and you know not having Echler hurt them but that is a that's a big part of how they move the ball down the field and they weren't able to do that and you can see that it you know kind of caused some issues for their offense throughout the game yeah and we kind of knew they wouldn't run it well against Tennessee their run defense is crazy yeah yeah but I do I do like what I saw from I think it was a good mix of deep, deep attempts and, you know, working with what he has.

The reality is, like, Keenan Ayanna and Mike Williams aren't going to really get it done deep, so you're going to have to scheme stuff up. I love the way they're using Quentin Johnson. He's not going on the field a ton, but he's, when he's on the field, they're using him as a deep threat. I mean, they're not throwing it to him, but he's clearing stuff out, like, really well. Like, teams are respecting that element. So a couple of the big plays Keenan had over the middle where was Quentin Johnson just cleared it out for him. I think one was a dagger concept where QJ just completely cleared out the whole

middle of the field and Keenan had a nice little window to work there. I do like what I'm seeing from this offense a lot more than last year. It's definitely, week one was a struggle at times, but they were running the ball so good. You kind of give them a little break, you know, a little more ball. This week, they definitely, I like some of the concepts are drawn up and their willingness to throw it down field seemed to be there. So, well, hopefully that continues, you know. And that was, I mean, that was, it had to be game-plan oriented because Tennessee kind of got torn apart through the past last year. And a little bit last week, they were very susceptible to deep balls against the Saints. And the charges saw that.

It's just a matter of can you carry it over to a week where they play a little bit better past defense? And it just overall, if you watch just the charges offense, you'd think this team would win every game. And like you said, their scheme has been really solid. And again, against the Tennessee defense that it can't be overstated how well they play and how well coached they are. But it just comes down to the defense. And Brandon Saley is just blowing opportunities for this team. There's no reason you should be giving up a 92.7% adjusted completion percentage to Ryan Tannahill.

Oh, just wait until they play cousins this week. Oh, my gosh. That game might be 45, 42. And it just might, and it might, there might be, you thought there were a lot of passing yards in the Miami Chargers game. This could be more this week because Minnesota's best defense is not the greatest. And Minnesota's passing offense, honestly, they're very, very, very good through the first two weeks. Yep. I agree.

All right, let's pivot to game of the week for this coming week. We're going Eagles Buccaneers, Steve. Early game of the double Monday night slate there. So we get a double header on Monday again, which is cool. But Steve, we get to talk about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Baker Mayfield for a game of the week. What is happening? Yeah, as everyone predicted, especially me, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 2 and 0 after two weeks. I did not.

I thought they were going to be terrible, and I thought they were going to compete for the worst record in the NFL. And that, you know, still could potentially happen. But Baker Mayfield, man. Slinging it. He looks so comfortable for the first time since the 2020 season. He looks comfortable. He looks confident. He's finding his spots.

He's not putting the ball into harm's way too often. He just, he looks good. The offense in general looks good. That's the key, not putting the ball in harm's way often. He is like near best of the league and turnover. the throw percentage right now, really seeing the field well. Also, his off-target

throw percentage is very good. Only Jimmy Garoppolo, Patrick Mahomes, the same Howell have a lower off-target throw percentage, which I think is really cool. Dave Canales, really, really doing some wonders. And when you take a step back and look at it, too, Steve,

like, this is by far the best skill group Baker Mayfields had to work with, with Mike Evans, Ms. Godwin, Trey Palmer, Like there's some dudes there to work with where I don't think he's never had a receiver of Evans caliber, let alone Godwin's caliber. No. So this is a good situation. The offensive line may be playing a little better than people thought. They were supposed to be terrible.

Baker has avoided seven sacks so far, which leads the league by a lot. So he is making, he's just playing well. He's just playing really, really well. I think getting him on the move, like you suggested with Canales, been really good for, really good for him. He's just seeing the field a little better. He's short, so getting him outside the pocket is probably good for his vision, seeing those middle of the field concepts open up.

He's making it work. And he's throwing the ball beautifully. Yeah. And, you know, Canal is coming over from Seattle. He worked with Gino last year. And, you know, he kind of did similar things with Gino. He was taking advantage of what Gino's good at. And that's, you know, kind of not having him be a staff.

statue in the pocket, allowing him to move a little bit, allowing him to kind of create, be creative. That's what Gino's done. That's what, you know, that's what he's what he's what he's what he's doing the same thing. I mean, he's he looks confident. Like I said, he he's kind of moving all around in the pocket. It's a little, it gets hectic at times, but it's, you know, seems to be like control the chaos where I think before the last, you know, 2021, his last season in Cleveland, and then 2022, last year between Carolina and L.A. Often, I mean, not in Cleveland. Last year, it was a lot of offensive line issues.

He was not playing behind, you know, a lot of great offensive line play. But it was a lot of times he just looked out of control. And, you know, he overestimated a lot of times his arm strength. And that was like a huge problem for him, I think, is that there are so many times where Baker Mayfield thought that he had the arm to make a throw, and he does it. And I think that he's doing a lot better of this year where I think he's starting to kind of understand where he fits in and what his job is. And like you said, having the weapons he has has, you know, done wonders for him.

It's, you know, a lot different when you throw to Chris Godwin and Mike Evans compared to, like, you know, Jarvis Landry and, I don't mean who he, I don't know, the, ghost town that was the Rams receiving core in Carolina with having just DJ more. He, you know, like you said, he has more weapons to work with, but he's just operating within the offense really well. His numbers aren't, you know, insane from like a passing yard standpoint by any means. He's averaging like 245 yards a game. But again, he's, he's mitigating pressure well. And when he's getting outside the pocket, he's making throws when he has a chance. Yeah, their defense too has been okay.

No, listen, everything with the grain of salt, they've beat the Bears and the Vikings so far. So two people we projected to not be very good this year. And admittedly, both have pretty atrocious passing defenses. Yes. I mean, the Bears got ripped apart by Jordan Love and the Vikings have got, you know, they got ripped up everywhere. Yeah, they're, you know, they get. get ripped apart by everyone.

And so we'll see going this week, it's a very different defense. The pressure is going to be turned up against him. The coverage is going to be a little bit better. Although the Eagles are missing a couple, they're missing, you know, some guys in the secondary. So there's going to be some chances. But I really want to see how Tampa Bay holds up against pressure this week. Because, again, the bears are not good at bringing pressure, getting pressure on the quarterback. So there's, it's going to be a completely different game as far.

as how much time and how able he is going to be to avoid sacks. But I just overall, I'm really interested to see how they mitigate pressure. I think it's going to be a lot of quick game. I could, you know, I could see a lot of work with Godwin this week out of the slot to, you know, produce some short gains and short quick passes to kind of avoid having Baker under a lot of pressure. But it's an interesting matchup. And I think this is a real test for Tampa Bay and for Baker. in general to see is this you know is this fool's goal because of the defense they played or is this

offense actually what it's been yeah i do think like the eagles want to run the ball right so that's a big part of what they do the buccaneers run defense is really good though vita vea is an absolute monster they've got good really good linebackers i think if they can if they can get the eagles into some interesting you know third and long situations that could be really, really good for them because the Eagles passing offense right now, Steve, is a mess. I mean, it was a mess for a lot of last year. They were just hitting deep balls at such an insane rate that it kind of covered up a lot of that. I mean, even last week, Steve, like, you look at Jaylen Hertz numbers on paper, 18 for 23, 193 yards in a touchdown. You know, when you're pairing

that with 259 rushing yards, that doesn't sound bad. But when you actually turn on the tape and watch what they were doing in the past game, you're just like, oh my God, this is brain dead. This is horrible. I feel bad for Hurt. Like the play calling, it's like they don't trust him to throw over the middle of the field. They call basically no in-breaking concepts whatsoever. Unless it's like a short slant to A.J. Brown,

there's nothing. Everything's out on the boundary outside the numbers. There's a lot of concepts with no checkdowns built in. So, like, they're putting so much on Hertz plate where it's like deep ball or bust or static routes, three curls and max protect. Like your own deep, deep hitches, max protect. If it's not there, Hertz has to run the ball.

And it's just like, it's not sustainable. I said this last year, and they were hitting deep balls at such an insane rate. It ended up not mattering. But eventually they're going to have to get a little bit more robust and creative with their past game.

And you alluded to it when we were, I think when we were talking during the game on Thursday night, like me, you and Chris, and you had said that it looks like a college offense. It looks too much like a college offense. And there's a lot of college influence in the NFL, now it's you know kind of filtering in a lot more but this is too college too much and it you know

it's almost like you're playing to rip apart like a college defense a defense where you know inevitably there's going to be holes there's going to be gaps because there's a talent deficit that's kind of what their offense looks like but that doesn't happen as often in the NFL and like you said you can see it there's no check there's not a ton of check down options and hurts, you know, it doesn't have, like he's, I think, struggling a little bit with his decision making, it seems like at times, not in terms of like throwing the ball away, but just getting the ball out. And you can see it. I mean, he has the eighth longer, or the, sorry, the seventh longest time to throw. And while yes, he has a, he has great, you know, great pass protection,

but no offense is designed to have that long of a time to throw. Except this one. They're like, this is what I was telling you guys the other day, there's no read to be had. There's like there's no anticipation, anticipatory throws to be had. There's no, no breaking routes. So a lot of his dropbacks,

he's hitting the top of his drop and all he sees is the back of numbers. Yeah. Like, because it's just static. Like everything's so static. It's crazy. But anyways,

I don't. You'd like to see him filter in more with Dale Scottor and DeAndre Swift. Two guys that could and should be used more in a checkdown situation, guys who can kind of create after the catch and make the most of the field in front of them, but they're not giving hurts that option a lot. Yeah, Gowder had a million targets in this game.

I think he had six catches, but it amounted for like 20 yards. Yeah. Because it was just pretty predictable what was coming. So I think ultimately I don't necessarily expect Tampa to compete in this game, but if they're going to compete, it's going to be putting the Eagles in third and long situations. Yeah.

I think their offense will find ways to score some points. I think if they can get to like 21, it'd be good on first down on defense. I think they have a chance to compete. That'll be the game. Yeah. And yeah, I still think Philly pulls this game out somewhat comfortably. And I think we kind of see a reset of what Baker's been. Because I think that a better defense, a better pass rush, guys that finish sacks more often,

I think that's going to fluster him a bit because we've seen in the past Baker can get flustered by pressure especially if it's consistent and it's, you know, yeah, just consistent. And I think that that will kind of show through

a little bit this week because I think he's, they've still, they've still a lot of 35% pressure percentage on, like for that offensive line, which is like around the middle of the league. And, but if you put that out towards like a whole season,

that's, up toward the top. And so what can he do with guys who were better at finishing sacks and like just dudes on that defensive line from Philly? With dudes, yeah. Agreed. So you're taking the Eagles. I'm taking the Eagles as well, but I think this could be a fun, a fun game.

And I like getting to watch Baker Mayfield in a game that kind of matters a little bit, even though it's only week three. Yeah. And like you said, I think that if Tampa can slow down in Philly, run game and not give up over 200 yards rushing or 180 to DeAndre Swift like Minnesota did last week. I think that it's going to put the Eagles in a tough position to have to really air the ball out if, you know, if they're only averaging three, four yards of carry. For sure. All right. Let's wrap it there. Any final thoughts, Steve? I'm just, I think it's just an interesting season so far. I'm in

interested to see how some of these teams that we thought were going to be way better bounce back and Cincinnati is one where you'd like to see him bounce back this week against the Rams but there's been a lot of chaos this year and I'm excited to watch and keep going I think that you're going to see some teams come out and be better than what we thought absolutely all right let's go do it go to fantasy points dot com check out all the content on there. The Data Suite is live. I think there's a seven-day trial up right now. If you're not already a subscriber, please go check that out. Tons of awesome content coming out, though. My game ball piece came out yesterday. Chris's giant stat pack thing comes out today.

I think it's a five stats. He loves pack. Graham has stuff coming out today. Scott has stuff coming out today. Joe Dolan's matchup thing comes out today, I believe. So it's a action-pack content-filled day. Check it out at fantasy points.com. Thank you. We are out. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform. And come join the roster at FantasyPoint.com.